


Never Fear

by RetroLizard



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2014-11-21
Packaged: 2018-02-26 08:59:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2646002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RetroLizard/pseuds/RetroLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clear and Noiz experience a power outage, and an (un?)eventful night unfolds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Fear

Midorijima hadn't seen a storm this bad in years, definitely not since Noiz had been residing there. The torrential rains and powerful winds unceasing all day long and into the night, it shouldn't have been a huge surprise when the lights flickered a few times and finally, all went dark. Noiz cursed quietly, and Clear looked around, puzzled. "Noiz-san, what happened?"

"Power outage," he sighed. "Apparently they aren't real common here, but the response is always slow. Last time it happened, it took 'em forever to finally come back on." It was probably thanks to Toue, he imagined, channeling the majority of resources towards Platinum Jail and leaving the old resident district to function with outdated technology.

"I see," Clear said. Noiz had been in the middle of something on his computer, as usual, and didn't seem too happy about the abrupt loss of electricity. The usual hum of machines, the perpetual buzz of urban human life, had suddenly stopped all around them, and would have been eerily silent if not for the constant thrumming of rain on the windows and the occasional swells of wind. Noiz wondered how much louder it must have been for Clear's sensitive mechanical ears. Clear got up and stood by the window, looking out into the darkness. "It's really been like this for a long time, hasn't it?"

Noiz 'hmm'ed, checking the battery life on his coil. He felt a little comfort in at least having that. Being cut off from technology made him feel strangely suffocated. "Well, chances are it's gonna be dark for a while," he explained, crossing his arms and leaning back on the sofa. "So better get used to it." He glanced over at Clear, the android still staring absent-mindedly through the water-streaked pane.

The silence was shattered by an echoing boom, and Clear let out a yelp, jumping up like a startled cat. "What was that?!"

Noiz blinked at him. Had he really never heard it before? "It's thunder," he said. "It's just a sound that happens when lightning hits."

"A-Ahh," Clear said with a forced smile, a little embarrassed. "So, this is thunder. Alright." A second clap sounded, this time closer, accompanied by a bright flash from outside. "NYEEEEK!" Clear jumped back, recoiling in fear. Noiz got to his feet and went over to Clear.

"Are you afraid?"

"No, no, of course not," Clear lied, shaking his head rapidly.

"''cause you know, it can't hurt you," Noiz explained. "Even if the lightning got close, we're safe inside." Well, he couldn't really be sure that was one hundred percent true, but no use making Clear worry.

"I see," he said quietly. Even in the dark, Noiz could see him shaking like a leaf. A moment later, an especially loud one resounded throughout the room, and Clear squealed, clinging tightly to Noiz's shirt and hiding his face in the shorter man's shoulder. "Uwaaahhh, Noiz-saaaaan," he whined. "Make it stoooop!"

Noiz wondered why Clear was having this kind of reaction to a thunderstorm. Being startled by a sudden, loud noise was a natural human response, of course, but usually one would stop being alarmed after they'd come to expect it. Maybe this was a little glitch in his programming, a fear response to the noise but without the rational decrease in fear over time. No matter the case, it didn't seem like Clear could help himself. Noiz patted his boyfriend's hair. "It's okay," he said. "It'll go away sooner or later." He tipped Clear's face up to look at him and squeezed his cheeks. "Just remember it can't hurt you, okay?"

"Okay." Clear nodded. "What should we do now?"

Noiz sighed and looked up, thinking. "I really don't know. I'm not sleepy, that's for sure."

Clear seemed a little more relaxed, but the way he still gripped onto Noiz's shirt showed he was still on edge. "What do people normally do during a power outage?"

A light bulb blinked on in Noiz's head. The answer was simple. "We gotta build a fort."

Clear tilted his head. "A fort...?"

"Right." He took Clear's hand and lead him along. "Come on. I'll show you."

\---

Guided by only the beam of a tiny flashlight, they'd gathered up every pillow, blanket, cushion and soft, plush thing they could find in Noiz's apartment. Combined with a few chairs and some teamwork, they now had themselves a very cozy two-person-sized fort. They crawled in clad in their pajamas, which meant some of Noiz's old worn-out t-shirts, boxers for Noiz, and excessively baggy sweatpants for Clear. Noiz had wanted to build one of these ever since he was little. Now that he lived with Clear, he had someone to do this kind of thing with, he mused. Once securely inside their fort, they sat cross-legged and pulled a thick blanket over their legs. Noiz flipped on the flashlight to illuminate the inside. "So," Clear asked, "What do we do in the fort?"

"We, uhh..." Noiz dragged the syllable out while he contemplated. "Tell spooky stories."

"Spooky stories? You mean stories about monsters and ghosts and stuff, right?" Noiz nodded, and Clear chuckled. "That's silly, Noiz-san. There isn't such a thing as ghosts, even I know that."

"Don't try to act cool," Noiz said. "After you almost pissed your pants over the thunder a few minutes ago." (Clear pouted and 'hmmph'ed.) "Besides, you're wrong," Noiz said. "There's totally such a thing as ghosts. I've seen 'em."

Clear's eyes grew a bit wide. "Really?"

"I was haunted by one as a kid," he said. He wasn't telling a _complete_ lie; he did have recurring nightmares that still stuck out in his memory. "She was a girl that was murdered in the same house I lived in, years before my family moved into it. No one saw her but me."

"What did she look like?" Clear asked quietly. Hook, line, sinker. Noiz tried not to smile; Clear was just too easy.

"Her legs were broken, bent in ways legs aren't supposed to go," Noiz said, remembering the unpleasant visions from his childhood. "All bloody and mangled." Clear cringed visibly at his description. "And she had to drag her body around on the floor, with her fingernails." Clear pulled the blanket up to his face, letting out a little squeal.

"Y-you really saw her?"

"Mhm. A few times." Noiz noticed Clear was shaking again. This might have been defeating the whole purpose of trying to make Clear _less_ scared, but he couldn't help himself. Messing with Clear was always fun. "I think she was jealous of people with healthy legs, and was looking for a pair to steal." He leaned in minutely closer to Clear and lowered his tone, Clear unconsciously mimicking his body language. "When I saw her, I'd run away and shut the door to my room," he explained. "But she followed me, and I could hear the sound of her coming down the hall." Clear's eyes, transfixed on Noiz, grew ever wider as he continued his story. "And then I could hear her scraping on my door, trying to get in," he said. "Thank god she never caught me..." He looked down slightly, as if concerned. "But sometimes I wonder if spirits can attach themselves to people, and if she could follow me all the way here..."

He was silent for a long moment until Clear began to speak. "Noiz-san, I don't thi--"

" _Shh_ ," Noiz shushed him, looking alarmed and bringing his voice down to a whisper. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Listen." They both pricked their ears, waiting with bated breath. The only sound was the rain falling and the howl of the wind, but Clear still listened carefully. He was tense, and distracted. He couldn't see Noiz's hand under the blanket. It was perfect. And three, two...

Noiz suddenly grabbed him by the ankle without warning, and the reaction was better than he could've dreamed. Clear gave the most girlish, high-pitched screech he'd ever heard and jumped straight up into the air, taking half the fort with him. Instantly Noiz fell onto the floor, bursting out in uncontrollable laughter while Clear stood dumbfounded, gradually processing what happened. He pulled off the blanket that covered Noiz, who was still laughing at him. "Oh man," he panted after a moment, brushing a tear from his eye. "That was too good."

"N-Noiz-san!! That's mean!!" Clear whined. "And look what you made me do to the fort!" He set about fixing it with a pout on his face, and Noiz figured he should make nice.

"Sorry, it was just a joke." He helped Clear put the fort back together. "I'd totally do it again though," he muttered under his breath. He couldn't be blamed if Clear was so easy to scare, could he?

"Your sense of humor makes no sense to me, Noiz-san," Clear lamented with a sigh. Just as they were finishing up, Clear stopped and looked up. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"I _do_ hear something."

"But there's nothing there," Noiz said. "I just made it up."

"I really mean it," Clear whispered. "Something is moving around in your room."

Noiz glanced down the pitch-black hallway towards where Clear was looking. "My room?" They both waited for long seconds. It wasn't like Clear to lie about anything, and certainly not to get back at him for his prank. They both jumped when there was a very audible crash from Noiz's room. Clear gasped and tensed up, moving closer to Noiz. Both stood stock-still, looking at each other in confusion.

"W-what do you think that was?" Clear asked.

A terrifying possibility dawned on Noiz. In his line of work, he made more than his fair share of enemies; some of them dangerous, or downright insane. He unconsciously voiced his fear aloud: "What if someone broke in?" He'd considered what he might do in a situation like this before, tried to prepare himself for it. Suddenly it all flew out of his head and his mind went blank. He didn't know what to think and his body remained frozen in place.

Clear looked at Noiz, surprised to find him in a state he'd never witnessed in the other man before. His eyes were wide, and Clear could hear the rapid thumping of his heart. He was frightened. Clear's anchor, the one constant in his life, was the fact that Noiz always knew what to do. That's how it would always be, Clear thought, and now here he was, scared stiff. Noiz snapped out of it only when he felt Clear squeezing his hand tightly. Meeting the android's eyes, they were serious and determined. His body wasn't shaking, nor was his voice. "Noiz-san," he said. "No matter who it is, I won't let them hurt you."

It left Noiz speechless, and he could only gape at Clear as he started to walk boldly down the hallway. "C-Clear, be careful," he called at his back once he'd gathered himself, and Clear replied with an assuring wave of his hand. Noiz felt perfectly useless, and at the same time awestruck. He watched Clear disappear into the bedroom, still tense as he feared the worst. Then he caught...laughing? Was Clear really laughing?

"Noiz-san," he announced. "There's nothing to worry about! It's only Miyamoto-san!"

"...Miyamoto-san...?" Clear emerged from the darkness with a smile on his face and holding something black and white in his arms.

"Your window wasn't shut properly, and Miyamoto-san let himself in." Miyamoto-san, as it turned out, was a cat. He calmly allowed Clear to carry him, licking his paws. His fur was a bit matted, but otherwise he didn't look much like a stray. "He just wanted out of the rain, I suppose, hm?"

"You've...named him?" Noiz asked, incredulous.

"Yes. Oh, right! You haven't met him yet!" Clear petted the cat as he spoke, using his shirt to dry a bit of the wetness from Miyamoto-san's coat. "He comes by almost every day. I give him food sometimes!"

Noiz rubbed his temples, heaving a sigh. "Well no wonder he keeps coming," he groaned, "if you're feeding him."

"Is that bad?"

"No, it's..." Noiz looked between the cat and Clear. He didn't exactly mind cats, and Clear seemed to like this one a lot, so he couldn't see any harm. "It's fine. As long as it doesn't scratch the furniture or pee on anything."

"Hooray!" Clear lifted the cat up to his nose, where it sniffed him. "You'll behave, right Miyamoto-san? If you do, you can stay inside where it's warm and dry tonight!" Noiz rolled his eyes a little, going unnoticed by Clear.

\---

They decided to revamp the blanket fort, creating a gap on one side so they could watch the storm. They really had nothing better to do, after all. "Seems like it'll never stop," Clear remarked quietly.

"It has to eventually," Noiz said, his voice forming a yawn halfway through.

"You're getting sleepy?"

"Mm." Nestled snugly under the blankets together, Noiz leaned against Clear's shoulder. Miyamoto-san was curled in the android's lap, purring contentedly. There was a roll of thunder, and Noiz felt Clear flinch, but only slightly. He glanced up at his face. "Not so scared anymore?"

"Maybe," Clear admitted. "Just a little." A grin pulled at the corner of Noiz's mouth.

"I don't get you," he said, snuggling back into Clear's shoulder. Clear gave him a confused, inquisitive sound, but Noiz shook his head. "S'nothing." Starting to feel like he could doze off, he wrapped his arm around Clear's waist.

"...Eh? Noiz-san?"

"Don't worry," he teased. "I won't let the thunder hurt you."


End file.
